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Percentage of Canadians planning RRSP contributions down: poll

A man looks at a retirement planning brochure Monday, January 13, 2014 in Montreal. (Ryan Remiorz / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

The Canadian Press
Published Thursday, January 28, 2016 4:58AM EST

TORONTO - The percentage of Canadians who plan on contributing to their RRSP before the deadline at the end of next month is down slightly from last year, according to a poll issued by the Bank of Montreal.

However, the survey found that those who have already contributed and those who are still planning to add to their retirement savings are putting aside a little more than last year.

Of the Canadians surveyed, 61 per cent of those not yet retired said they would be making a contribution to their RRSP, down from 64 per cent a year ago.

But the average contribution for those who have already contributed was $3,984, up from $3,738 last year.

And among those planning to contribute, the average amount was $3,327, up from $2,892 a year ago.

The deadline to contribute to an RRSP for the 2015 tax year is Feb. 29.

The poll, conducted by Pollara for the Bank of Montreal, was based on an online sample of 2,177 adults between Dec. 30, 2015, and Jan. 4, 2016.

The polling industry's professional body, the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.